Nursery Developments

 In January the Engine Room blog focused on the buildings and structures our nursery uses to grow seedlings and young plants throughout the winter months. Today I’d like to tell you about some of the other parts of the nursery which have been transformed over the last 6 weeks.

The nursery is laid out in four distinct areas. The glasshouses, potting shed and workshop buildings are located at the top of the nursery off these run the biennial / cut flower beds, the cold frame yard and over the hornbeam hedge the standing out ground and polytunnels.

Discussions have been underway for some time on how best to develop the biennial bed area. For many years this large area had been used for a variety of purposes including cut flower production, but a series of hedges which divided the space made it feel disjointed and neither part of the nursery nor part of the garden. The garden team felt more could be done with the space and that it should reflect the high horticultural standard we as a team all strive for in the garden and the rest of the nursery.

So, many weeks ago work began on improving this area. The first job was to convert the small bed below the cold frames into additional standing out ground for our ever growing production of roses for the plant shop.      

 

       

Once the rose standing out ground was completed the contractors were ready to move on to work on the biennial bed area, grubbing out the various sections of hedges and turning it into one cohesive area.  

Our head gardener Troy, created the plan which would divide the area into a series of beds bisected by hard paths. Each bed would serve a useful purpose for the needs of the garden and the wider property, encompassing biennial growing space for the production of wallflowers, foxgloves, verbascums, cut flower beds to grow the blooms used throughout the property and plant trial beds, so the garden team can test the performance of a variety of plants and judge their worth for inclusion in the garden. (Iris, Hemerocallis and Delphinium trials are all in the pipeline).

 

The area begins to take shape. In the background you can just see Gardener Jon replanting some of the biennials which were lifted earlier to make way for the works

As the previous two images show the area has now really taken shape, the transformation is just stunning and that is just with bare earth on show, only time will reveal the true potential and beauty of this revitalised part of Sissinghurst. I can’t wait to see it develop and mature and I’m sure it will be a feature of blogs to come in the future.

Emma Grigg